Textile fabric and method of producing same

ABSTRACT

A textile fabric comprising a first mechanically consolidated fibrous web having first and second faces, arranged on the first face a second fibrous web folded upon itself to form pile tufts, fastening the second fibrous web to the first fibrous web fiber loops originating in the second fibrous web and forming stitches on the second face, and the second face having a plush surface comprised of fibers originating in the first web.

United States Patent 1191 Ploch et a1.

14 1 Dec. 18, 1973 TEXTILE FABRIC AND METHOD OF PRODUCING SAME [75] Inventors: Siegfried Ploch; Walter Scholtis;

Heinz Zschimke; Dieter Scharch, all

of Karl-Marx-Stadt, Germany [731 Assignee: Forschunginstitut Fur Textiltechnologie, Karl-Marx-Stadt, Germany 221 Filed: Feb. 23, 1971 21 Appl.No.: 117,896

[52] US. Cl. 161/62, 28/72 P, 156/148,

51 lm. 01... B321) 7/04, 'DO4h 11/00 [58] Field of seal-611..."? 161/47, 53,58, 59, 161/62-64, 66, 67,172, 80, 81, 88, 89, 90, 91, 98,151,152, 153,154,155,50;1'5'6/93,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,285,796 11/1966 McElhinney 161/62 X 2/1961 Morgenstern 161/81 2,796,654 6/1957 Ashcroft 28/72 P 3,533,871 10/1970 Zentmyer 161/67 X 3,347,736 10/1967 Sissons 161/154 X 2,913,803 ll/l959 Dodds 156/148 Primary Examiner-George F. Lesmes Assistant Examiner-Paul .1. 'Thibodeau Attorney- -Nolte & Nolte [57] ABSTRACT A textile fabric comprising a first mechanically consolidated fibrous web having first and second faces, arranged on the first face a second fibrous web folded upon itself to form pile tufts, fastening the second 11- brous web to the first fibrous web fiber loops originating in the second fibrous web and forming stitches on the second face, and the second face having a plush surface comprised of fibers originating in the first web.

,4 C1aims,,4 Drawing Figures PATENTEDHEB 18 I973 my 3 3.779.852

Mama I grroawrs PATENTEU DH; 1 8 W 3.779.852

SHEET 2 0F 3 Fig. 2

Fig. 3

smwza TEXTILE FABRIC AND METHOD OF PRODUCING SAME This invention relates to a process for the production of a textile material or fabric, in particular blankets or the like products having a teaseled or plush-like surface in which a fiber layer formed into pile tufts is connected with a base web by means of wales formed from fiber loops of the fiber layer and arranged close together on the back of the base web, by stitch-knitting. This invention also relates to the textile material or fabric itself.

The bond between the fiber layer and the base web is effected in this type of process by means of a stitchknitting machine without the use of sewing yarns. The fiber layer is arranged on the base web in the form of pile folds. There results a fabric which exhibits on the front face a plush-like surface and on the back a stitch structure.

If the textile materials thus produced by the prior art process of this type are subjected to a teaseling treatment on both sides, for example for the production of blankets, the nap surface is formed on the back face exclusively-from the stitches of the wales arranged there. In this resides the risk that the anchoring of the pile tufts formed from the fiber layer is weakened in the base web, because the fibers are pulled out of the holes formed in stitch-knitting by the pricking needles. Also the textile fabrics, for example blankets, are made by this method in one operation, so that blankets, for example, only with the same color distribution on both sides can be made. The production of blankets, or other textile fabrics, with color distribution different on both sides requires that one side must be made in a first stitch-knitting process and then the other side be made with fiber material of different colors in a second stitchknitting process. However, the execution of two such steps is uneconomical.

It is an object of the invention to render possible, for the production of blankets or the like by the above type of process, an improved bilateral teaseling and bilateral different color design in only one operation.

To achieve this object, according to the invention, a

mechanically consolidated fibrous web is used as the base web and is so arranged in the core of the blanket or the like that the fibers of the base web are made use of for the formation of the nap or plush surface on the face away from the pile tufts.

As the mechanically consolidated fibrous web there may be used a knitted-in fiber web. It is so arranged in the core of the blanket or the like that the wale side of the knitted-in fiber web is turned toward the pile tufts, and the side away from the pile tufts is made use of for the formation of the nap or plush surface.

Further, there may be used as the base web also a needled fiber web, which may be chemically consolidated but should have no stiffening plastic impregnation. It may be chemically consolidated from the back to at most half the material thickness.

In the treatment of the other fabric side, primarily the fibers of the base web are seized by the teaseling machine, raised out of their flat position, and thus made use of for the formation of a nap or plush surface.

The invention will be further described below with reference to a specific embodiment as illustrated in the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a transverse section of a stitch-knitting machine provided with pile-forming means;

FIG. 2 is a section in longitudinal direction of a textile web according to the invention, not teaseled;

FIG. 3 is a section in transverse direction of the unteaseled textile web;

FIG. 4 is a section in transverse direction of the bilaterally teaseled textile web.

The stitch-knitting machine according to FIG. 1 is provided with the stitch-knitting tools known in these machines. The stitch-knitting tools comprise the slide needles 1 arranged on a bar 5, their hooks 1a, which are closed by the closing wires 2 arranged on a bar 12, and cast-off sinkers 3 on a bar 13, which have the function of insuring the withdrawal of the slide needles 1 from base web 6.

The knitted-in fiber web 6, serving as the base web, is supplied to the slide needles I, as is also a fiber layer 7. The feeding of the fiber layer 7 may be directly from a set of cards or other fibrous web-forming device by means of feed rollers 8, 8 over an endless conveyor belt 10 which is driven by the feed rollers 8, 8' and runs around the roller 9. Compared with the base web 6, the fiber layer 7 is supplied at a much higher speed, so that a densification or folding upon itself of the fiber layer 7 takes place. The high densification may lead to the formation of cross ribs.

The slide needles 1 pass throug the base web 6 and seize with their hooks lla fibers from the fiber layer 7. The fibers are oriented in the fiber layer 7 substantially lengthwise or obliquely to the direction of movement of the fiber layer 7. The fiber layer 7 is pressed by a rail 11 provided with bristles, which rail 11 executes a swinging and/or lifting movement synchronously with the work cycle of the needles 1, into the hooks 1a of the needles 1, so that, as they go back, the needles 1 take along loops 7b consisting of fibers from the fiber layer 7 and pull the loops 7b through the base web 6.

In the rearwardmost position of the needles 1, when their hooks 1a are closed by the closing wires 2, the fiber loops 7b are cast off over the tips of the needles I. In this way wales are formed continuously on the back of the base web 6, so that the back of the base web 6 has the appearance of knit fabrics.

As can further be seen from FIG. 1, the fiber layer 7 is placed over the pile sinkers 4 arranged on bar 14, and is thereby brought intothe form of pile type longitudinal ribs, in that by the 'slide needles 1 pricking into the fiber layer 7 the latter is pulled into the interstices between the pile sinkers 4. Thefiber loops 7b form the legs of pile tufts 7a (FIGS. 2, 3 and 4). It is desirable to bind all fibers forming pile tufts into the wales. The proportion of fiber layer 7 tied into wales can be regulated by, among other things, the size of the needle hooks hr, by the point in time of the closing of the needle hooks la, the velocity and magnitude of the movement of the means for pressing the fiber layer 7 into the needle hooks la, the density of the fiber layer 7 and the rate of feed of the fiber layer 7.

The fibers of the fiber layer 7 should in general have greater length than the length used up in one cycle of the needles 1 so that they are seized by the needles I at least twice in succession and, when the fibers are oriented obliquely to the direction of movement through the machine, successively by at least two mutually adjacent needles ll. There are thus formed locked wales which connect the fiber layer 7 durably with the base web 6 and which do not unravel.

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal section of the textile material produced according to the invention and FIG. 3 is a transverse section thereof. As in the knitted-in fiber web 6 used as base web fibers 6b are oriented preferably crosswise to the longitudinal direction, the fibers 6b appear simply as fiber cross-sections in FIG. 2. A portion of the crosswise oriented fibers of the knitted-in fiber web 6 has been formed into wales and thus effects consolidation of the knitted-in fiber web 6. In the core of the blanket fabric the knitted-in fiber web 6 is so arranged that the wales are on the side 6a. Fibers 6b, on the other side of the knitted-in fiber web 6, form a top surface of the blanket fabric and are firmly anchored on the other side 6a of the knitted-in fiber web 6 by the wales. On the knitted-in fiber web 6 the fiber layer 7 is so stitched that on one side of the blanket fabric the fiber layer 7 is firmly anchored to the knitted-in fiber web 6 by stitches 7b formed from the fiber layer 7 and on the other side of the blanket fabric pile tufts 7a are formed from the fiber layer 7. If the blanket fabric thus produced is subjected to finishing treatments, preferably teasel treatments, then on one side of the fabric the pile tufts 7a are treated, while on the other side chiefly the fiber layer 6b of knitted-in fiber web 6 is exposed for teaseling. As the fibers 6b preferably extend crosswise, they very easily can be seized by the teasel scrapers and be pulled out between the stitches 7b.

FIG. 4 illustrates how a nap surface has been formed on one side from the pile tufts 7a and on the other side in some small part from the stitches 7b but for the most part from the fibers 6b of the knitted-in fiber web 6, the side 6a of which has wales.

In this manner also blankets with two differently colored sides can be produced, one side being formed by the fibers of the pile tufts 7a of one color, the other side being formed essentially by differently colored fibers 6b of the knitted-in fiber web.

The application of additional finishing steps, such as printing, spraying, embossing, and the like is possible.

The two sides of the fabric may also be finished in different manners, e.g., one side with long fibers and the other with short fibers or felted, and the like.

The base web may additionally be reinforced with transverse and/or longitudinal yarns, which are preferably arranged in the interior or on the wale side of the base web. Also the base web may be made capable of shrinkage in the transverse direction by the selection of suitable fibers or filaments.

The process according to the invention further permits the production of blankets provided with embossing effects on one or both sides. By admixture of materials with hot-sealing properties in the base web and/or the fiber layer for the formation of the pile tufts durable embossing effects can be attained, as the bonded areas cannot be teaseled. I

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the machines for stitch-knitting are commonly referred to as Mali machines (see New Fabrics Without Weaving by K. W. Bahlo, Papers of the American Association for Textile Technology, Inc., November 1965), that the knitted-in fiber web is a fiber web which has been processed in a known manner by the needles of a knitting or a Mali machine to form on one face of the web interconnected loops constituted of the fibers of the web and that the chemically consolidated web is one coated on one face and impregnated to no more than one-half the thickness of the web with an adhesive plastic composition conventional for such purpose such as a latex of an acrylic acid ester polymer or copolymer.

While the invention has been described by reference to a specific embodiment thereof, it is to be understood that such description is by way of example and is not intended as a limitation upon the scope of the invention as described by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

l. A textile fabric comprising a first mechanically consolidated fibrous web having first and second faces and composed of fibers having a generally common orientation on the second face, arranged on the first face a second fibrous web folded upon itself to form pile tufts, fiber loops originating in the second fibrous web;

said loops fastening the second fibrous web to the first fibrous web and forming stitches on the second face, the stitches on the second face being oriented crosswise to the fibers on the second face and being spaced from one another in the direction of the orientation of the fibers on the second face sufficiently to permit a teasel scraper to seize the fibers on the second face and pull the fibers out between the stitches, and the second face having a plush surface comprised of fibers originating in the second face of the first web.

2. A textile fabric according to claim 1, in which the first web is chemically bonded through a zone extending inwardly from the second face to a depth no greater than about one half the thickness of the first web.

3. A textile fabric according to claim 1, in which the first web is of knitted-in construction, one face of the first web being comprised of interconnected loops constituted of the fibers of the first web.

4. A textile fabric according to claim 3, in which the second web is fastened to the first web at said one face of the first web. 

2. A textile fabric according to claim 1, in which the first web is chemically bonded through a zone extending inwardly from the second face to a depth no greater than about one half the thickness of the first web.
 3. A textile fabric according to claim 1, in which the first web is of knitted-in construction, one face of the first web being comprised of interconnected loops constituted of the fibers of the first web.
 4. A textile fabric according to claim 3, in which the second web is fastened to the first web at said one face of the first web. 